Don’t be too hard on bikers

Buffoonery needs to be punished but sitting in the rain for an hour is no incentive to leave the gas-guzzling car at home

It is horrible under any circumstances. If a person dies after a spell of illness or of old age, it is sad, but when a person is cut down in an utterly preventable situation, it is not only a tragedy, it is monumentally stupid.

I hesitate saying this, but one can compare standing on your rights in traffic to claims by certain opportunistic politicians and activists that a woman should have a right to walk where she wants and wear what she wants. I have no quarrel with those rights, but reality says differently. There are places in town where I would warn Chuck Norris not to go, never mind my wife, son or daughter, if I had a daughter. Just so, there are certain things in traffic I would advise bikers not to do, even if they have a right to do it. Safety first, rights later.

There are many “new” bikers on the road these days. I have reason to believe that the Enduro trend, started by BMW’s GS series of motorcycles, brought a lot of new people to the world of two-wheels.

Then there was the recent spurt in the number of scooters zipping around in the traffic.

I know a few old warriors of the two-wheeled kind, grizzled veterans of the road. They know how to do their thing. But the new folks are not as experienced and, for them, it is tough out there, even if they do not realise all the implications.

We have the Think Bike stickers all over cars these days. And it is a good thing, because motorists have to wake up and keep the twowheeled brigade in mind. But bikers also need to begin thinking like motorists.

For one thing, do not ride in a car’s blind spot as you so often do. There are limits to a motorist’s rearward vision. Be aware of what they are. Either overtake, or ride directly behind a car, at a respectful braking distance, in full view of the central rear view mirror, that mirror which a motorist finds the easiest to use.

And please, Mr Traffic Officer, forgive a biker when his machine makes a bit more noise – a noisy bike is safer, because it wakes up the driver of the car.

QUICKER: Putting a halt to lane-splitting will remove one of the main reasons people use two-wheeled transport.